The flagship release is the 2006 Champagne Rare, a 70/30 split of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that’s a cellar selection from 8 different Grand Cru vineyards. Tight, backward, and straight-up structured, it offers brilliant notes of stone fruits, toasted brioche, white flowers, and obvious minerality. Needing plenty of air to show at its best, this beauty has a wonderful mid-palate, a racy mousse, and the balance and class to cruise for over two decades in cool cellars.

A gorgeous opulence tinges this vintage of Rare, a richness and generosity that is irresistible. It's both savoury and fruity, with notes of praline, spiced rum, hazelnut mango, passion fruit and roasted lemons. Despite this richness there's elegance and poise, and the texture builds in the mouth, stacking blocks of chalk and stone against plump exoctic fruit and the silkiness of flower petals. Tasted from magnum.

Deep golden colour. Charred, honey toned maturing nose with tropical fruit and oriental spices alongside candied orange, white chocolate, curry and dried apricots fruit. Broad on the lusciously textured palate, which offers a soft, fluffy mousse of a warm vintage. Wide open and expressive already, highly pleasurable today. An early bloomer of a vintage. March 2021.

The 2006 Brut Cuvée Rare is a rich, gourmand rendition of this prestige bottling, unfurling in the glass with a complex bouquet that mingles aromas of yellow orchard fruit, pears and fresh pineapple with nuances of buttered toast, iodine and smoke. On the palate, the wine is full-bodied, broad and textural, while remaining fresh and surprisingly tight-knit at the core, concluding with a long and saline finish. There's sufficient structural tension here to promise more than a decade's graceful evolution, and although this is nicely balanced, it's a generous, sun kissed rendition of the Cuvée Rare that reflects the warm vintage. The blend is 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir. William Kelley. August 2019.

Piper-Hiedsieck's 2006 Cuvée Rare is racy and polished to the core. Baked apple tart, apricot, lemon confit, vanillin and brioche infuse the 2006 with striking aromatic intensity and creaminess that builds with time in the glass. Sumptuous and forward, the 2006 offers tons of near and medium-term appeal.

About to launch. Disgorged late 2018. Very sunny year, a bit like 2018. Deep coppery straw. Very powerful nose – and again quite powerful and broad and rich on the palate and then it’s drawn tight on the finish. Bitter orange-peel note. Long. It should age well but it’s already drinkable. (JR)